Hello Readers, my name is Wendy. I am a happily married mother of two young ladies. Together with my husband we are living an abundant life through growing some of our own vegetables and fruit, cooking and baking everything from scratch and being mindful of what we use and buy.
God has blessed us abundantly. We try to be good stewards of those blessings.

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Saturday, 4 March 2017

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 4th March 2017

Our frugal life leaves us feeling content, rich and meaningful. Money is saved, good food is enjoyed, time in the garden is treasured and our home is our castle ( of sorts ). Here's how we spent our week -

* Used recycled bread bags to line the bathroom bins, store food in the freezer and to scoop the kitty litter.

* Picked strawberries and lots of raspberries each day.

* Planted a punnet of mixed lettuce seedlings. Generally the punnets only have 8 seedlings. This punnet had 15. BONUS !!! I always try to pick one with more than the usual amount.

* Megan bought a whole new professional wardrobe from Savers for under $180 ( including a few pairs of shoes and a handbag ). All the items look new and most are really good brands. The retail value would be close to $1500.

* Fed the chickens some kitchen scraps plus a couple of lettuce plants that have gone to seed.

How did you save money this week ?

16 comments:

Hi Wendy. What a great frugal list you had this week and well done on the gas bill! Your raspberries look divine! This is what we got up to in my house:- despite the constant rain I've been drying as much as I can in clothes horses and drying clothes on plastic coat hangers. Saved myself from using the dryer.-made banana weetbix muffins with over ripe bananas and froze them for work-ran out of vegetable stock (yes I do buy stock cubes because I'm usually so time poor) but rather than going to buy more stock and using petrol, I made a vegetable stock at home in about 10 minutes with vegetable peelings and spices I had in my cupboard. I think I will make my own vegetable stock from now on it was that easy.- Maintained the two light rule and switched everything off at the wall where possible.- used Skype to call family members overseas for free- used bread bags as bin liners- planted more lettuce, spring onions, coriander and beans in our veggie patch.- Picked kale and some chilli from veggie patch- made home made hommus and Pita chips when we had guests over, they really enjoyed them

I hope you have a good week ahead. Mine will be spent declutterung this week!Amy

Your scones look delicious, Wendy. Homemade plum jam too...Mmm! I worked three relief teaching days this week. It made for a busy week! I still made all meals here and snacks came from the freezer. I gave a lovely friend a handmade gift from my present stash as it was her birthday. I never got to making yoghurt so that's on my list for today. Have lovely weekend. Meg:)

Hi Your raspberries look lovely. I have 2 raspberry bushes but they just put out 3-4 metres cane I have to cut off and only ever have a couple of berries to pick. Have you any ideas? I did try one year not to cut off the canes but still nothing.

Our raspberry bushes grow 2 - 2.5 metre canes. We feed the plants with Seasol when they are growing and tie them to the shed when they are too tall.. When they die back at the end of the season, Darren cuts the canes down to 30 cms. That's pretty much all we do.

I was gone for about 10 days, getting home at midnight Wednesday. Here are some things I did:

(1) My coat was stolen the first day. Since I was in Minnesota and a blizzard was forecast, I needed a new one fast. I went to Goodwill and got a full-length Lands End squall on clearance for $7. It is exactly what I had before (although mine was a shorter version) and I'm happy with it. After all, it's red! Later I discovered that my pricey new gloves (a gift from DS) were in the pockets of the old coat. I went back to GW and got a pair of microfleece gloves NWT for $2.

2. One of the grocery stores here had a 12-Hour meat sale Thursday with whole boneless pork loins for US$1.68 lb. and 85% lean ground beef for $2.49. I bought about 10 lbs. of each for $41 total, and I will get about 20 meals from it.

3. I spent about an hour Friday getting everything ready for the freezer. I cut the pork into 12 chops, two small roasts and two packages of thin stir-fry strips. I pattied out about 7 lbs. of ground beef and made 6 half-pound packages as well. This way I can pick and choose just what I need for a recipe. Except for a few feet of plastic film, all of my freezer supplies were repurposed--foam meat trays, bread bags and plastic containers that other food came in.

(4) Wrote menus for the next week.

The purpose of my trip was to visit the Mayo Clinic for a second opinion. I was scheduled for surgery in late January and chickened out. Mayo thinks my condition can be treated without surgery. However, I had made and frozen about 25 meals for DH and DD for when I was in the hospital and recovering at home, and we are eating one tonight! Definitely a Frozen Asset.

I'm so sorry you had your coat and gloves stoles. Who does that ??? You have to hope they REALLY needed a coat. Great bargain at the Goodwill though. I have a red coat although mine is a short trench coat style.

Great bargains on the meat. I package mine up into different sizes too. I never know if my girls will be home for dinner.

The Mayo Clinic is one of the largest and finest medical facilities in the US, if not the world. They specialize in diagnosing illness, although they also treat illness and do surgery. (I live too far away for that). They have the original clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, plus clinics in Phoenix, Arizona, and Jacksonville, Florida.

Well I decided last week I would give up take away for lent. I really enjoy my take away coffee so it is a real test for me at the moment. Wendy the Mayo clinic is a bit like our Peter McCallum Clinic except they research all diseases not just Cancer related ones.Having a good declutter here too this week.Went up your way to Avalon castle for my eldest niece's wedding on Saturday which was lovely. They had a wishing well wedding which meant you gave money instead of a present as she has been living away from her parents for many years and has all she needs for the household.Blessings to all

Wow, Wendy! I am feeling inspired by your task list this week. I just bought four types of berry plants and am planning to start a garden myself. Do you have any jam making tips for a first timer? I want to make sure that I get the most out of the harvest this season! Thanks in advance.